Bound for Glory

Earlier this week I finished Rick Bragg's biography of the grandfather he never knew, Charlie Bundrum. The book is titled Ava's Man. Charlie is part of a generation that is gone, gone, gone. He was a joyful family man, living a hardscrabble life in the hills of Alabama and Georgia--with nary a complaint. He was a carpenter who roofed houses, and a bootlegger. Most of all he was someone others admired, and the protector and lifeblood of his family. I had read Bragg's All Over But the Shoutin', which is about Bragg's mother bringing up him and his brothers; it's also a great book.

Reading about Charlie Bundrum reminded me of another book I'd read a few years ago: Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie (published 1943). As in Ava's Man, much of the story takes place during the Great Depression. (My God, how did people live through it? And how did people with nothing feel that "this land is made for you and me"?) The Bundrums were able to live off the land a bit, fishing and hunting, and following work around. The Guthries had it a bit different in Oklahoma with the dust storms. Woody hoboed around on trains, painted signs, and sang for money. I also thought it was interesting that Woody didn't have the most comfortable childhood, partly stemming from a house fire that destroyed his father's law books and thus his living. As sucky as insurance companies can be, insurance is a great thing to live with! There wasn't such a thing back then. Another interesting thing about the book is that Woody illustrated it; he was visually artistic too.

This weekend I watched the 1976 movie of Bound for Glory. I didn't see too much of the book in it, but it wasn't awful. The plot was a little hard to follow and slow-paced, but it was successful in portraying the plight of people moving west for jobs, what little was often waiting for them at the end of the line, and Woody's involvement with the labor movement. Oddly, straight-haired David Carradine played Woody. More oddly, a very young Randy Quaid had a small role. The movie ended with this quotation:

Woody Guthrie
(from script for opening broadcast of WNEW radio show on 12/3/44)
"I hate a song that makes you think you're not any good. I hate a song that makes you think you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are either too old or too young or too fat or too slim or too ugly or too this or too that. . . . Songs that run you down or songs that poke fun of you on account of your bad luck or your hard traveling.

I am out to fight these kinds of songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter how hard it's run you down nor rolled over you, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and your work. And the songs I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you."

"Dream," drawing by Woody Guthrie